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Monday, 28 January 2013

Guest Post by Maria V. Snyder & Giveaway of Scent of Magic

Maria V. Snyder

Maria V. Snyder switched careers from meteorologist to novelist when she began writing the New York Times best-selling Study Series (POISON STUDY, MAGIC STUDY and FIRE STUDY) about a young woman who becomes a poison taster. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, Maria dreamed of chasing tornados and even earned a Bachelors of Science degree in Meteorology from Pennsylvania State University. Unfortunately, she lacked the necessary forecasting skills. So she worked as an environmental meteorologist until boredom and children drove her to write down the stories that have been swirling around in her head. Writing, proved to be more enjoyable than meteorology, and Maria returned to school to earn a Master of Arts degree in fiction writing from Seton Hill University. Unable to part company with Seton Hill and its wonderful writing program, Maria is currently a teacher and mentor for the MFA program.

You can contact Maria at maria@mariavsnyder.com. Maria always says one of the most gratifying aspects of being a published author is hearing from readers, and she prides herself on answering all her emails...eventually (delays can be caused by deadlines, family issues and traveling :)

Ideas
R Us - Guest Post by Maria V. Snyder

The most common and frequent question I’m
asked is where do I get ideas for my stories.
And I have a standard reply that I rattle off – that I get them from
books, TV shows, magazines, movies, traveling, classes, people I meet, my kids,
etc… life is basically fodder for any writer’s imagination. Sometimes, I joke and say I get them from
this website: Ideasrus.com (not a real
website!!).

I thought it would be fun to look back on
my various books and link the idea to what first sparked it.

Idea – Making my main protagonist be a
food/poison taster. Spark – My husband
works for a major confectionary company (cough…Mars Chocolate…cough) and tasted
chocolate as part of his job. I learned there was way more to tasting than
chewing and swallowing and used that for my book, Poison Study.

Idea – Having Yelena’s long lost family
live in the trees. Spark – I read an
article in National Geographic about
scientists who live on these big rafts on top of the tree canopy in the jungle
so they can study the bugs and birds who live up there. I thought it would be
cool to have a clan of people living in the trees and used it for Magic Study.

Idea – Opal blows magic and not air into
her glass creations. Spark – I signed
for classes to learn how to work with molten glass. One class was a glass blowing class and I
struggled to “thumb a bubble” and to blow enough air to make a sphere – which
is the start to goblets, bowls, vases, etc…
I then decided to let Opal also struggle with this problem in Fire Study.

Idea – Stormdancers and their ability to harvest
energy from storms. Spark – Watching the
TV news coverage of four Category 5 hurricanes in one season (Emily, Katrina,
Rita, and Wilma). Since I have a Bachelors of Science degree in meteorology, I
know hurricanes release a ton of energy and that causes the destruction. Those hurricanes had me asking, What if? What if we could harvest that storm energy
and use it? Turn big and nasty Katrina
into a mild soaking rainstorm? That’s how I invented the Stormdancers who
played a big role in my book, Storm Glass.

Idea – Having a society living inside a big
metal cube. Spark – this is the one idea
where I dreamed the entire story. Yep –
the protagonists, her friend Cog, the Pop Cops and the twists all dreamt one night. Never has this happened before or since! This dream turned into Inside Out.

Idea – Sheepy. Spark – I needed something to show that the
upper children in Inside had it nicer growing up than the lower level
kids. The uppers had toys so I used my son’s
stuff sheep that he used to sleep with and he called Sheepy to demonstrate this
aspect of society. Little did I know
that Sheepy would become so important in both Inside Out and Outside In.

Idea – Tohon’s dead soldiers. Spark – I needed a way to ambush my protagonist
and her friends in the forest. Since
Kerrick’s forest magic can sense anyone within a few miles of him it was going
to be impossible to surprise him unless…the ambushers weren’t alive. And yes, you might claim they’re zombies who
are very popular right now, however I put my own spin on them. They’re not rotting, decaying corpses out to
eat brains. Tohon’s life magic has
preserved their bodies so they don’t decay, feel pain, or get sick/hurt. And they’re intelligent enough to obey simple
commands. A very hardy army that doesn’t
have to be fed or rested and they’re used in both Touch of Power and Scent of
Magic.

As you can see from the above, I’m not
lying when I say I getideas from everywhere – even the smallest details come
from somewhere – I just have to think harder to figure out where J

--Maria V. Snyder

Welcome back to my blog Maria and thank you so much for this amazing post! It's inspiring and I hope all the readers and to-be writers will find more ideas after reading this. Maria has done an interview here with me quite a while and ago and it is still one of my favourite author interviews I have ever done. She is also donating a copy of SCENT OF MAGIC (Healer #2), her newest book, to be given away here. (The first book in the series is TOUCH OF POWER) This giveaway is international, and my usual giveaway rules apply. Enter to win Scent of Magic, and don't forget to thank Maria for her awesome post and donation!

Aiiieee!!!! I love Maria! It's so cool to see her guest post here :D Poison Study is one of my absolute favorite fantasy books, but I also love The Host (Stephanie Meyers...might be more scifi?), The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (J.R.R. Tolkien), and Summers at Castle Auburn (Sharon Shinn).

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Hello there!! Welcome to my blog! Thanks for taking the time to stop by and I would love it if you could follow me :D I'm Angela and I'm a teenage girl who loves reading all sorts of books and listening to music (sometimes doing both at the same time XD). One of my favourite times is when I sit by the warm fire place reading a good book while it's storming outside. I also really enjoy writing and writing reviews. Authors are very welcome to drop by and ask me to review your books. I live in New Zealand, a far away country at the corner of the world. Anyway, that's it for now, drop me a comment and enjoy!

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